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Throughout human history people have consistently tried to create ‘intellectual’ frameworks to justify their delusional and solipsistic beliefs. People seem to create and believe in such mental frameworks even when they damage, hurt and kill them. Religions, both traditional and secular, fall into that category as do all schools of philosophy and economics. Today I am going to talk about one of the more contemporary and more ‘secular’ sounding ‘intellectual’ framework used to explain the world- evolutionary psychology.

Before we go further, let us be clear about one thing. Evolution in all its forms (micro-, macro- as well as speciation) is very real and measurable. While we can certainly argue about the contribution of each sub-form of evolution to the overall process or its ability to arrive at ‘perfect’ solutions, the existence of the evolutionary process is not in question.

I however take an exception with using the idea of evolution, or a particular interpretation thereof, to justify delusional and solipsistic beliefs. Such perverse interpretations of the evolutionary process are especially common among greedy and subhuman who profess right-wing ideologies. Evolution inspired solipsistic beliefs such as the ‘survival of the fittest’ and eugenics have a long and close connection with who truly deserve a final solution. One of the more popular ‘intellectual’ justifications for ill-gotten wealth, prestige and power is that people who have them are somehow more superior, smarter or otherwise genetically better than those who were less lucky. I have attacked this idea at multiple levels in many of my previous articles and this is another one in that chain. So let us talk about evolutionary psychology especially as it concerns the mechanism through which these supposedly ‘superior’ genes spread and increase in populations- a kind of genetic Calvinism.

Given that the number of fertile progeny who reach reproductive age are the fundamental measure of success in biological evolution, let us look at the situation in contemporary societies. What are the defining characteristics of those who are having many kids today? and what about those who have fewer nor none?

If we ignore societies in the midst of civil wars or underdeveloped countries with poor life expectancy and high infant mortality, two trends dominate the demography of most contemporary societies. One- the majority of human beings live in countries where the median life expectancy is over 70 years. Two- the fertility rate in almost all countries, even those where woman had 7-9 kids barely a generation ago, is less than 3 kids per woman. However not every fertile woman in those countries have 2 or 3 kids, since an increasing number have one or none.

Some of you might see this change as merely a temporary blip in the great ‘celestial’ pattern. However an objective look at the evidence suggests otherwise. For one, there were never 7 billion plus humans alive on earth at once in an era where the whole world just happened to highly interconnected by trade and information and simultaneously technologically capable. To put it another way, we have never been here before. Contrast this to all the fiefdoms, kingdoms and empires of old which had considerable similarity to each other- even into the middle of the industrial revolution.

So, who is having more kids today? and who is having less on none? and why are they behaving that way? For starters the fertility rates among the ‘rich’ and ‘well-off’ are very low. Sure, you can find the occasional religious type who has many kids and grandkids or some attention-whore adopting kids from poverty-stricken countries. But they are just that.. the minority. The majority of people who had the (ill-gotten) financial resources to have as many kids as they wanted to are just not having them! In contrast to that, people with limited financial resources are still having kids. Why is that so?

Why aren’t the rich and well-off having lots of children?

The very low fertility of the rich and well-off is certainly not due to their altruism, decency or concern for the future of humanity. Indeed these people are some of the slimiest and most narcissistic sociopaths that have ever walked the face of the earth. Their obsession with making more money, gaining more status and abusing their power is in a class by itself. Given that CONservatives and LIEbertarians consider such people as the peak of human evolution, shouldn’t they be spreading their ‘awesome’ genes left and right? But are they? and why not?

Why does a mediocre black rapper have more kids than a well off surgeon or high-flying corporate lawyer? What about professors and scientists? How many kids does Bill Gates have? What about the guys who started Google? What about other billionaires? What about the bankers on wall street who spend every waking second thinking of new ways to fleece and fuck over humanity? Isn’t it odd that those with the resources to have tons of kids are either not interested in having them or end up with 1 or 2 kids after multiple rounds of fertility treatments? Are these people not able to comprehend evolution or the reality of their eventual mortality? What is going on?

Contrast this to the fecundity of even mediocre athletes, musicians, C-list celebrities or even your local drug dealer. Why do women want to have the kids of such men rather than educated professionals or filthy rich plutocrats? Surely, women are not dumb enough to overlook that having the kids of guys with money is a great way to live well. But women are increasingly choosing to be single mothers or have the kids of hot and popular guys while sticking some dweeby rich or well-off guy with the bill.

Some of you might blame ‘feminism’, ‘contraception’ and the ‘modern welfare state’ for this outcome. But are they really the major culprits behind the inability of rich and well-off men to make women wet? Would women get turned on by these guys if the situation was different? Were they ever turned on by such men?

Could it be that humans prefer to have sex and kids with other human beings rather than things that look and sometimes behave like humans?

One of the main set of problems which occupies the minds of, and causes frequent hand-wringing among, people in ‘developed’ countries goes something like this..

Why do ‘affluent’ and ‘developed’ societies shrink in numbers? Why is the fertility rate in ‘developed’ countries functionally sub-replacement? Why do financial incentives to have more kids not work? Why does increased levels of ‘wealth’ translate into people having far fewer or no kids?

There are those who believe that these behavioral changes are linked to people becoming more materialistic, secular and hedonistic. Others suggest that people are not having kids due to concern for the environment or other altruistic sounding reasons. Another group blames it on the cost of raising children and sees not having kids as a rational response to destruction of living standards due to following the cult of neo-liberalism.

But are any of these reasons real, large or widespread enough to account for what we see all over the world? While I do not deny that economic calculations and realities have an impact on fertility rates, they are at best a partial explanation. Countries with relatively stable living standards and decent prospects such as Germany, Sweden or Austria are not much better off that countries with decent but stagnant economies such as Japan or Italy. Furthermore, economically depressed countries such as Greece have very similar fertility rates to still booming countries such as South Korea or Taiwan. Culture can also be excluded from the list of major factors affecting fertility since Japanese culture has very little in common with any of the Italian sub-cultures which in turn has little in common with Swedish culture.

So how can we explain this drop in fertility to sub-replacement levels across a number of cultures and societies? While we could say that sub-replacement fertility in any given culture is due to its own unique set of circumstances and reasons, there are two problems with that type of explanation. Firstly, sub-replacement fertility can occur rather quickly (within a generation) in countries or regions that once had very high levels of fertility such as Mexico, Brazil, Iran and South India. Basic cultural assumptions and mindsets simply cannot change that fast, even if they really wanted to. Secondly, it is hard to ignore that the patterns of fertility change and their linkage to educational levels and occupational status is eerily similar across various countries and cultures.

So let me suggest another way of looking at this issue.

Have you ever though about what motivates most people to work towards a better future? Is it the threat of bad consequences or a reasonable chance at happiness? Unless you are a CONservative, LIEbertarian or otherwise delusional, it is obvious that it is the desire for happiness that drives people to work towards a better future. Sure, you can make most people work like slaves for a generation or two, but then things stop working and society slowly but surely comes apart. You simply cannot get people to care about the future through overt or covert force.

Could it be that the structure of social structure and organization in ‘developed’ and ‘affluent’ countries make people feel unhappy.

Here is a question- When is the last time you felt happy and optimistic about the future for more than a few hours? I am not asking you about the last time you acted as if you felt like that, but rather when you actually felt like that. So why is it so hard for people to feel happy in societies that are by measures very safe, secure and easy places to live in? Hardly anyone starves in developed countries (except maybe certain parts of the USA), goes with reasonably decent medical care (again.. expect parts of the USA) or lives very precariously (once again.. except the USA).

So why do high levels of personal security and relative affluence not translate into happiness?

There are those CONservative morons and LIEbertarian subhumans who say that people are desensitized to happiness by having all their basic physical needs met and only people who don’t have stuff can appreciate getting stuff. However I have yet to see CONservatives or LIEbertarians who want to willingly become poor so that they can happiness over every small gain in their life. Clearly these scumbags are preaching something they don’t believe in, let alone practice. Let us now consider an explanation that most people find too embarrassing and unpleasant to think about, let alone admit.

Maybe ‘developed’ and ‘affluent’ societies are built on and enforce rules, mores and behaviors that are for the lack of a better word- unnatural.

To be clear- I am not talking about ‘naturalness’ or ‘unnaturalness’ based on whether hunter-gatherers did it or not. Nor am I defining ‘naturalness’ based on any continuity with older cultural traditions. My definitions of both are based upon whether the rules, mores and behaviors in any given society are in direct conflict with what human beings really are- irrespective of race, culture, level of technology or any similar externality.

Almost every single human being desires certain things and experiences beyond immediate survival and safety. We desire human company, sex with other people, entertainment and doing other things to feel more happier. A person who cannot indulge in these activities is an incomplete and unhappy person at best, regardless of how safe and affluent the rest of their existence may be. Did you notice a common thread that runs through all of the things I just described? They require people to think, choose and act on their own.

Therefore any society that tries to suppress human agency will be filled with people who are perpetually unhappy, regardless of how comfortable and materially well provided they are.

All ‘developed’ and ‘affluent’ societies, without exception, are constantly involved in trying to suppress and subvert the human agency of people who live in them. While the precise mix of reasons behind doing that varies from one society to the other, the end results are rather similar and people just end up disconnecting from that society to the maximum extent possible. While most of them will go on living and pretending to be ‘normal’, deep down they just don’t care. In that respect people who live in rule and protocol-based societies from Germany, Switzerland and Sweden are very similar to those in Japan, Korea and Singapore or anglo- countries such as the USA, Canada, UK and Australia.

Suppressing and destroying human agency under the guise of ‘tradition’, ‘efficiency’, ‘conformity’ or ‘competition’ results in a system where almost nobody is happy or invested in the future viability of the system. People in such societies then try to act ‘normal’ when it is plainly obvious that their actions lead to rather abnormal outcomes.

You might have seen rich childless professionals striving to buy the biggest houses in the most expensive neighborhoods even though neither they nor anybody they care about or know can enjoy the fruits of their labors. Then there are people who attend multiple social events every week, routinely talk to hundreds of ‘friends’ and actively participate in society yet are incapable of basic trust in the person they live with- let alone those they call their ‘friends’. You also might have seen people who commute to work for almost 2 hours a day in large and expensive cars and SUVs just so they can live in a neighborhood filled with people who do the same. What about the physician or surgeon who makes half a million dollar an year only to spend most of their waking hours working and trying to extract more money from patients and insurance companies. Or the lawyers who spends the best decades of their lives trying to maximize their billable hours rather than enjoying life?

And what about the elaborate and worthless scams of European and East-Asian social etiquette. Do they make people happy or achieve anything worthwhile? Do they create societies that make people want to contribute to them? Is living you entire life as a passive-aggressive german (or canuck), an autistic swede, a deceptively rude french, a hatefully polite japanese or an insecure self-hating but obedient korean worth it? Even societies that are less socially rigid such as the USA are full of people who are openly phony and willing to stab their nearest and ‘dearest’ for small and temporary gains. These toxic and dysfunctional societies survived for a longish time only because they had a supply of new and naive suckers. Modern and effective methods of contraception put an end to that mode of survival and expansion.

We are therefore now observing and experiencing what should have occurred a long time ago- namely the shrinkage, shriveling and death of toxic societies.

The majority of her musical performances are as one half of the musical comedy duo ‘Garfunkel and Oates‘. This video clip however is from a live performance of one of her solo songs. I am putting the lyrics below the video so that it is easier to follow the song since the quality of the live recording (esp the sound) is poor.

It starts with..

I’m a whore in girlfriend’s clothing
Didn’t even know it till last night
I went to a birthday party
What I saw just wasn’t right
Six men stood around the pool
All of whom had dated me
Some of them I’d come to know in
Varying degrees of biblically
Wondering how this had happened
I just stood there paralyzed
Trying to recall how each thing fizzled
When suddenly I realized

I’m everyone’s type till they get to know me
After that, not so much
Maybe the world is trying to show me
Be more careful what I touch
‘Cause all the men that I have dated
The numbers have accumulated
I’ve become an accidental slut

It goes on..

My mom says there’s two types of girls
The ones men fuck and the ones they marry
It had not occurred to me
I might be in the former category
‘Cause I really didn’t mean for this to happen
My intentions were pure with all six
But the title of whore-faced fucking ho bag
Doesn’t come with an asterisk
Don’t know exactly how this happened
Or when my judgment disappeared
But somewhere along the way
Shit got weird

Now I’m everyone’s type till they get to know me
After that, not so much
Maybe the world is trying to show me
It’s time to downshift my clutch
‘Cause all the men that I have dated
The numbers have accumulated
I’ve become an accidental slut

and ends with

I guess my cat’s out of the bag
So I might as well embrace it
‘Cause once Pandora’s left your box
There’s no way to erase it

And I’m everyone’s type till they get to know me
After that, not so much
Maybe the world is trying to show me
My capacitor’s out of flux
‘Cause all the men that I have dated
The numbers have accumulated
I’ve become an accidental slut

I often ask hypothetical, and semi-hypothetical, questions to make people see familiar situations from a new viewpoint. The question posed in this post is meant to help you see the true nature of an individuals connection to the rest of humanity. So here is goes..

Would you use a Doomsday Device (DD) if you had exclusive access to one?

Let us first consider the most important issue surrounding the use of such a device, namely that it will kill every human being on earth including the one who used it. There will be no human survivors left to enjoy any excess of material goods after the event nor will it be possible to rebuild human civilization in any shape of form. It will mark the end of humans as a species and nobody will care, remember or commemorate your achievement.

So, would you still use it? or would you use the threat of the device to achieve personal fame, power, wealth or some ‘higher’ goal such as changing human nature for the better?

While I don’t claim to know, with a high degree of certainty, what you guys would do- I have a strong suspicion that most would try to use the threat of such a device as leverage to achieve personal goals. In short, I doubt it will be deliberately used as most humans are too interested in continuing their pathetic existence on earth.

I, however, would use it without hesitation and here is why..

1] My views on humanity have changed over the years. There was a time when I would have entertained the hope that humans beings might voluntarily change for the better. It has however become increasingly clear to me that human beings are incapable of voluntarily changing even when doing so is highly beneficial to them. Most people seem to prefer plodding around in shit-filled pits rather than try to get out of them. They don’t even want to acknowledge the mere possibility of anything existing beyond their shit-filled pits.

While you can change group behaviors through fear, such changes will be temporary. They will likely disappear once the threat is gone or people find a way or ideology to continue living in their shit-filled pits. Furthermore, since humans beings are mortal even exclusive possession and access to the DD for the rest of your life would at best improve things for 3-6 decades after which things might start to fall back to previous state of affairs. Then there are more mundane problems such as maintaining exclusive control and access to the DD or monitoring the progress and effects of your reforms.

2] You could always use your exclusive access to the DD to obtain personal fame, power, wealth and get everything else that accompanies them. However that is a very mediocre use of such a capability. Warlords, kings, emperors and dictators throughout human history have obtained all of the above through some combination of dumb luck, extreme sociopathy or accident of birth. Even people like Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan can get almost all of that through little more than behaving like unstable and depraved attention-whores. Threatening to use a DD to attain public fame, make tons of money and fuck lots of hot groupies is a lot like hunting mice using a guided missile- certainly feasible but a massive overkill.

Moreover, maintaining exclusive control and access to the DD will (once again) occupy a considerable percentage of your time and mental efforts. Your situation under these circumstances would be rather similar to that of Gollum in LOTR, where his overwhelming desire to keep physical possession of the ‘one ring’ twists him into someone who cannot enjoy the true power of the ring. In my opinion, using a DD to get fame, power, wealth and sex is more trouble than it is worth.

Another possibility involves destroying the DD to prevent anyone else from using it. However anything that can be created once can also be created again. There is also nothing to stop the next person who gains control of such a device from either using or threatening the rest of humanity with it.

So far I have tried to show you why not using the DD or destroying it is less than optimal. So let us consider the ‘unthinkable’ option- using it.The principal objection to using the DD is that it would kill all humans including the person who activated it. But is death avoidable or optional in the first place? Even agelessness does not confer true immortality.

The real questions surrounding death therefore are ‘when’ and ‘how’. Linked to these two questions is another issue- namely the quality of life.

The answers to these questions depend upon on the amount of suffering and pain involved in living or dying. For example most people would prefer to die in their sleep or through some other relatively quick and painless means. Almost nobody wants to slowly die from painful terminal cancer or some other disease that leaves them invalid or bedridden. Similarly few people in good health and in a stable socio-economic situation are interested in dying. It is really about taking the path of least pain and suffering as far as the individual is concerned.

But does the survival of human beings as a species after your death matter?

The answer to that question lies in the nature of the relationship between the individual and society he or she lives in. Scenarios where the relationship between the individual and society are symbiotic and mutually beneficial do not typically cause a dying individual to wish for the death of the society he or she lives in. However the same is not true in scenarios where society is either uncaring, abusive or exploitative towards the individual. Individuals in such societies have either no interest in what happens to everyone else after their death or they actively wish for their destruction.

As I have said in many of my previous posts- it is painfully obvious to a large and rapidly increasing minority of people that we live in a society that is uncaring, abusive and downright exploitative. Now factor in the very high levels of social atomization, frequent betrayals in close relationships and fewer people having any kids. It does not take a genius to figure out that a significant minority of people today have little to no interest (or hope) in the continuation of humans as a species.

I therefore believe that the chances of a DD being used are much higher than most people are willing to themselves believe. Another factor that makes this scenario more probable is that throughout human history people lacked the technological means or opportunity to kill everyone else along with them. Today, that is no longer the case and such an outcome is within the realms of both technology and possibility. It is therefore really a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’.

You might have heard that disgraced road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong has admitted in a recorded interview with Oprah Winfrey that he used performance enhancing drugs during (and likely throughout) his professional cycling career. Apparently this worthless and meaningless admission has become a major news story and many people are concerned about its effect on the public image of other american heroes.

I however see this concern as misplaced since Lance Armstrong is, was, and always will be the quintessential american hero.

To understand what I am talking about let us start by listing the attributes that go into creating the quintessential american hero.

1] You have to be involved in the ‘right’ and ‘popular’ activities. Remember that American heroes never reach that status by doing something that might benefit or uplift humanity. You will never become an american hero by developing new drugs to treat previously incurable diseases, developing new technology to explore the universe or provide unlimited clean energy to humanity. Americans don’t care about people who do such ‘boring’ or ‘nerdy’ activities and will ignore them at best and humiliate or destroy them at worst. To become a true american hero you have to be a famous sport-star, renowned actor, popular musician, well-known mercenary or be involved with those glorious fields of human endeavor. Remember that people like Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky are true american heroes unlike the losers who developed the first effective antibiotics, built the Saturn 5 rocket or developed commercial nuclear reactors.

2] You have to look the part. It is not possible to become a true american hero unless you are good-looking man or a hot woman. Americans don’t like ugly or even plain-looking heroes. Do you think Americans would ever elect a bald or short president even if he was the most competent man for job? Sure, it used to happen before the age of TV- but not since then. Even an excellent but average looking sports-star will never be as big a hero a mediocre but attractive sport-star. Similarly an attractive but mediocre actor will reach heights of public acclaim that his less attractive but more competent counterpart will never reach. Even a military general who looks like a military general will have a far better chance of becoming an american hero than a more competent general who just does not look that ‘general-like’. While plastic surgery and cosmetic dentistry can help, innate good look are almost mandatory.

3] You must be good at public relations. Americans hate people who are realists or try to be factual as reality and facts are a major downer. The ability to lie, confabulate, distort truth or be selectively truthful is an absolute must for any true american hero. You can also supplement your natural ability in this area by hiring PR hacks, image consultants and getting all of your public statements preapproved by lawyers. It is also necessary to be able to convincingly fake the right amount of emotion at the right time. Nobody likes an american hero who cannot deliver the almost inevitable insincere apology without the right amount of public contrition. Once again, natural talent can be supplemented and enhanced by acting lessons. It is important to realize that good public relations is a 24/7 operation and letting the mask slip off for any extended length of time will seriously damage your chances at becoming a true american hero.

4] You have to seen as busy and engaged in your endeavor of choice. Americans don’t like idle people who can achieve great things since that is contrary to the calvinist worldview. The appearance of activity is extremely important for a true american hero because that is how you justify your rank and status. Nobody cares if your actions lead to any real worthwhile outcome as that is irrelevant. Heck, people don’t care even if you actions are hurting or destroying the lives of many others as long as you can justify it through the right amount of rhetoric, charm, outright lies and spin. In the worst case scenario, you can always deliver a carefully crafted, well-acted yet meaningless apology to those hurt or killed by your actions. It also helps if you can do that by quoting passages from the bible- because Americans know that religious people are always good at heart. Having an attractive and well-dressed family, who are good at acting, by your side is very useful when delivering apologies or justifying the unjustifiable.

5] It is important to appear and remain culturally relevant. Now doing that does require some skill and a good grasp of public tastes and trends. One of the most common ways of doing that involves creating foundations, charities or some sort of organisations devoted to solving or alleviating some real problem. While your organization will not achieve any success in its stated mission, it will create many job opportunities for lesser ‘do-gooders’ who in turn will sing your praises to an even bigger audience. Similarly standing upon the ruins of buildings destroyed through your incompetence will make you seem more leader-like than actually doing anything to fix the problems that led to the tragedy. Remember that good PR (point 3) is best served in a context or situation that demonstrates engagement and relevance even if you had to create the problem in the first place. Americans prefer bigger than life emotions, theatrical performances and entertainment over actually doing something.

In conclusion, Americans truly deserve their heroes- every single one of them.